Two-minute impact
The Lake Travis ISD board of trustees voted in June to call a $143 million bond election to fund athletic facilities for the district’s second high school while expanding and upgrading facilities at existing middle and high school campuses.
About $102 million of the district’s $143 million bond would go toward building stadiums and other facilities for football, soccer, baseball, track and field, and lacrosse teams at High School No. 2. The school is scheduled to open for the 2027-28 school year with ninth and tenth grades and will ultimately serve around 2,000 students, Superintendent Paul Norton said.
"We have significant growth coming in the future, and as a school district, it's our responsibility to be prepared and ready for that,” Norton said.
The election comes a year after the district’s $703 million bond election in which a $93 million proposition for school stadium facilities failed. While voters approved building a second high school through a $548 million school facilities proposition, the failed sports proposition has left the school without funding for athletic facilities beyond a gymnasium.
"The most important portion is getting High School No. 2 up and going to its full potential," said Jessica Walker, a member of the district's 2023 Long Range Facilities Planning Committee, which recommended this year's bond election. "The committee felt like it was needed for the new high school to have the same that the current high school has as best as possible."
The breakdown
The 2023 athletics bond includes:
- $102.7 million for High School No. 2
- $35.6 million for Lake Travis High School
- $2.3 million for Hudson Bend Middle School
- $1.2 million for Lake Travis Middle School
- $1.2 million for Bee Cave Middle School
- $23.2 million for a football/soccer stadium
- $20.4 million for a track/auxiliary stadium
- $15.9 million for a multiuse activity center
- $13.9 million for a baseball field
- $11.9 million for a softball field
- $7.3 million for eight tennis courts
Hank Carter, LTISD athletics director and head football coach for Lake Travis High School, said it will be crucial for High School No. 2 to have its own facilities as the district isn't prepared to operate without them, he said.
"I don't know that there's a great plan to open a second high school without any athletic facilities," Carter said. “That would be a major detriment to the kids that are zoned to go to High School No. 2."
As a bond would be the only way the district could fund these facilities, Norton said other district campuses would have to share practice and game spaces with the new high school if the bond were to fail.
Sharing facilities would present LTISD with major challenges as those spaces are already at capacity, and it would take at least 20 minutes to transport students from High School No. 2 to Lake Travis High School, said Marco Alvarado, LTISD executive director of communications and community relations.
A lack of athletic facilities would also impact other student organizations, such as the district’s band, color guard, cheerleaders and dance team, as well as community organizations, such as the Lake Travis Youth Association, Carter said. Scott Cronk, Lake Travis Youth Association executive director, said the youth sports organization has registered around 11,000 players over the last year, many of which use LTISD facilities.
"It would be a significant negative impact to our local youth sports programming to lose the LTISD field space we currently utilize," Cronk said. "We need more field space to deliver youth sports to our community now and into the future."
Moving forward
The district will hold meetings to educate community members about the bond this fall, Alvarado said.
Town hall meetings
- Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. at Lake Travis High School, Performing Arts Center, 3324 RM 620, Austin
- Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. at Lake Travis Middle School Cafeteria, 4932 Bee Creek Road, Spicewood
- Oct. 23 at noon on Zoom
